Shenanigunner's Guide to Targetingv1.21, Updated 25 July 2006

Targeting in City of Heroes and City of Villains can be an extremely useful
adjunct to your character's eyesight - a bionic eye to help spot those
pesky glowies, bosses, hostages and friendlies across vast and confusing
outdoor maps.

If you've played very long, you've gotten an outdoor mission that you had
to search and search to find the objectives... and you haven't played much
longer if you've run into one in which the objectives remain stubbornly
hidden, usually as the clock ticks down and your patience frays.

'Gunner to the rescue: Here's how to use the advanced targeting commands
to make those hidden suckers come out and play.

Basic Targeting Commands

Okay, you probably know the targeting that's been in the game since Issue
1:

target_enemy_near

target_enemy_far

target_enemy_next

target_enemy_prev

These commands, which take no arguments, will target any foe in your visible
range (about 180 degrees wide and either at map limit or about 300 yards)
who is, respectively, the closest, farthest, next farthest from the one
currently targeted, or next closer from the current target. The first two
will select only one target at any one time, while the second two will
cycle through the visible foes, one in nearest to farthest order and the
other the other way around.

You can do the same thing for friendlies:

target_friend_near

target_friend_far

target_friend_next

target_friend_prev

Which does the same thing as above for any player or NPC that shows
a blue or green reticle.

None of these command will let you target objects or NPCs with a white reticle.

Custom Targeting Commands

There are a variety of useful binds that can be written with the fixed commands,
but they don't quite cover all the bases. So in Issue 4 or 5, the following
custom targeting options were added:

target_custom_near

target_custom_far

target_custom_next

target_custom_prev

These commands work as described above with the exception that each requires
an argument to tell it what to target. The arguments are:

friend

enemy

mypet

notmypet

base

notbase

alive

defeated

teammate

notteammate

Some of these options are identical to the fixed targeting equivalents:

target_custom_near friend is identical to

target_friend_near

target_custom_next enemy is identical to

target_enemy_next

and so forth. There isn't really any reason to use these longer commands
in place of the fixed ones except individual preference. But you could
eliminate your use of the older commands to use the more consistent and
flexible custom commands all around.

The New Targeting Options

It's the other argument keywords that add new functionality. But the actual
operation of these commands and their keywords is not straightforward.
There is a hierarchy to the commands that is still muddy to me after much
experimentation. Here, to the best of my knowledge, is an accurate description
of the keyword functions:

friend will restrict targeting to any blue-reticle
(other player) or green-reticle (teammate) character.

enemy will restrict targeting to any orange-reticle
(foe) character.

teammate will restrict targeting to any green-reticle
(teammate) character, including both your and others' pets.

notteammate will exclude all green-reticle characters from the targeting
cycle.

mypet will restrict targeting to any of your
own pets.

notmypet will exclude any of your own pets
from the targeting cycle

You can further define what the above keywords will select with these two
secondary keywords. Note that these keywords
do not work reliably unless paired with one of the above primary keywords.

defeated will restrict targeting to any
figure, friend, enemy or NPC with zero hit points.

alive will restrict targeting to any figure,
friend, enemy or NPC with at least one hit point.

The other commands are... peculiar. Although they have individual descriptions,
they do not appear to have any discernible effect on targeting. That is,
if base and notbase have
any real purpose at all, I've been unable to figure out what it is. I'm
going to ignore them until such time as there's new data.

Note: These commands may only operate within supergroup bases. If someone
wants to experiment in a base and let me know...

It is important to understand that these commands begin with an assumed
"target all" and are restricted to smaller sets of targetable items by
the various commands. This might seem trivial but it helps in understanding
how the keywords interact and stack. For one thing, there HAS to be at
least one keyword, even if it's the apparently null base.
Using only that keyword makes the commands target everything targetable.

This "All"includes
friends, foes, NPCs, glowies, and even clickable doorways. And this is
where the custom targeting commands get really useful for hunting... but
we'll get to that in a minute.

So what we have here are keywords that are actuallly restrictive instead
of inclusive. By themselves, the custom targeting commands target everything.
To limit the targeting to useful categories, you must restrict the targeting
list. Got that?

Argument Stacking

The custom targeting commands permit more than one argument to be stacked
- such as:

target_custom_near friend alive

which will target only blue- and green-reticle characters who have at least
one hit point.

As nearly as I can tell, combining the pet, teammate, friend,
and enemy keywords with alive and defeated works
just like you think it would:

target_custom_near friend alive

will target green or blue reticle figures who have 1 hit point or more.

target_custom_near enemy defeated

will target enemies who have zero hit points.

Actually, those examples are
backwards from any useful ones, so let's flip them around:

target_custom_near teammate defeated

will target the nearest teammate who's defeated and needs rez or tp out
of the battle.

target_custom_near enemy alive

will target only enemies who have not been defeated - which would be useful
for a grapple bind written with the custom targeting commands, since there's
no point in a scrapper locking on to a defeated foe.

String Targeting

The final argument that the custom targeting commands will accept strings
- any character name or part of a name. Unfortunately, this won't work
with foe group names or titles, so you can't seach for "Family" or "boss,"
for example... wouldn't THAT be nice! However, if you're on a hunt for
specific types of enemy - such as that damnable hunt for Marcone Capos
to get the Gangbuster badge - you can write a quick bind with the appropriate
string and greatly simplify your hunting.

If you're searching for more than one exact character name, you'll have
to analyze the spread of names for each foe type to see if there's a substring
that will cover them all.

All of the following are valid binds:

targetcustomnext sorc (Tsoo Sorcerers)

targetcustomnext outcast (Any Outcast minion)

targetcustomnext lead (Outcast Lieutenant or Boss)

...etc. Have fun. This is particularly useful for those with macro keyboards,
where a whole slew of keys can be bound to specific searches. You'll likely
need a cheat sheet to keep them straight, though.

Now let's put it together.

Advanced Targeting

Here's how to use the custom targeting command to simplify those damned
hunting missions, whether they're kill-alls, hostage rescues, glowie hunts
or any other mish that requires you to laboriously search the whole darned
map.

Put this bind on a key you can whack almost continuously while manipulating
the mouse and movement keys:

/bind ADD "targetcustomnext base"

I specify (and use) the numpad plus key because I can whack it while my
hand is still on the trackball. (Yeah, I use a trackball, what's it to ya?)

You will need to be able to move, control air movement and whack this key,
so choose a key or mouse button that works for you.

Now, when you're in a map that requires searching, or hunting in a zone...

(Optional) Drag your targeting window to the center of the screen, either
just below or just above the center of view. (Optional, but helpful.)

(Optional) Make the target window large enough to see easily with the

/windowscale target 1.5

command. Adjust the value from 1 to 2 to find
a comfortable size. You might bind thiis and the return to normal size
to a pair of minor keys for convenience.

Get to a good central place (among obstacles) or a high place (through
jump, teleport or flight).

Spin slowly while whacking the targeting key. Watch the target window
carefully. When you see your desired target, freeze and cycle the targeting
slowly until you have it targeted.

Do whatever heroic or villainous thing you must.

Repeat steps 3 through 5 as necessary throughout the map.

Substitute a character name string, as described above - and strings like
"hostage" might work just fine as long as all the scared little guys have
the same name - for very selective targeting.

Tips, Secret Things & a Conclusion

Some targeting is kind of subtle. Things you aren't supposed to be able
to target will show odd text, and may not show a selection reticle. This
includes clickable doors (which will show a white "Dr" in the target window
but no reticle).

What's really odd is that that "Dr" appears sometimes on non-door items,
often key bosses or figures in missions. The only way to find these objects
is to hit your Follow key and let it drag you to the item, which can be
dangerous if it's a purple boss. Don't complain to me if the last thing
your character sees is an Aberrant's ugly face.

(Just before I wrote this, while I was testing the commands, I had a mission
to find eight Lost hostages of the Rikti. It was a timed mission and I
was short on time, and my search technique REALLY helped find the hostages
in quick time. I could not find the last hostage... but there was
a boss who targeted with this mysterious "Dr" as well as his own
reticle. I ran out of time just seconds before defeating him, so I'm not
sure... but I think he was the eigth hostage and that mysterious, secret "Dr" was
the clue. Now, I find that useful as hell when you get one of those mysterious-objective
missions... don't you?)

Now... what's REALLY odd about that "Dr" is that it's breakable. Try this:
write the bind and go into any zone. Target until you get a "Dr" and you'll
find that you can cycle endlessly and never lose it. However... target
one and hit follow to zoom you to the door... and it's no longer targetable.
Very strange. More indication that it's a bug or unintended feature.

Comments, corrections, additions and complaints to the usual address. Hope
you find this a useful addition to your gameplay!